Rockets

Spring is lovely. Late last week I decided our first travel-free weekend in over a month should be spent doing something fun. Rockets seemed like the obvious choice: physics, explosions, what's not to like? Friday night is our regular "Family Movie Night", so we watched October Sky to get in the mood. Learning is always enhanced when you've got some idea where you're going. Then yesterday we headed out to pickup some rocket kits. Fortunately I did this with Alora & Brittan only about a decade ago so I remembered all the things to buy. Probably the first time I've been in a Hobby Lobby since then, too. Maxwell & Zara put the kits together with a minimal amount of help. Basically I explained the theory of how everything was supposed to work and then answered questions as needed. This was probably not the optimal approach, since tonight I am helping Zara disassemble and rebuild hers so that the engine will actually fit in the bottom. Also, good glue is more important than I realized. Maxwell's rocket flew well during the first launch, but broke apart coming back down. The bottom piece stuck itself 2 inches deep in the soft ground of the cowfield behind our house where we did the launches. The second flight, however, was somewhat disastrous:

Still, overall it was a good learning experience and I think we'll be able to iterate into some more complex discussions. Zara was interested to solve some basic conservation of momentum problems, but Maxwell walked off after a few minutes to go make a sandwich. Maybe the conservation of energy will be more exciting. Or calculating the altitude the rockets fly to from their time in the air.

Soap 1

Rose 1

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